Yet, the colossal apparatus of the dictatorial propaganda machine is invariably destined to fail in the long run because it is fundamentally disconnected from the unyielding nature of reality. A propaganda film can depict bountiful harvests, but it cannot feed a starving population. A state-controlled newspaper can boast of economic miracles, but it cannot mask the visible queues, the soaring inflation, or the stagnation of living standards that citizens experience every day. The discrepancy between the proclaimed fiction and the lived truth creates a cognitive dissonance that, over time, erodes the very foundations of the regime's credibility.
